She received the moniker “the Look” when — as a beautiful, carefree dollybird in swinging ’60s
London — she found fame in the 1965 Richard Lester comedy
The Knack and the 1966 dark comedy
Georgy Girl. A 2011 documentary on the actress was titled
Charlotte Rampling: The Look.

But in France, where she has lived since 1979, she has been lovingly known as “the Legend”
because of memorable performances playing brave, daring and often difficult women in films such as
Sidney Lumet’s
The Verdict (1982) and Francois Ozon’s
Under the Sand (2001).

“I guess I seek out this great spirit in a character,” the 67-year-old actress explained from
her home in Paris.

Rampling brings an icy, enigmatic quality with a touch of maternal concern to her latest role:
as Dr. Evelyn Vogel on the final season of
Dexter.

The brilliant neuropsychiatrist encounters everyone’s favorite serial killer, Dexter (Michael C.
Hall), a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department, when she becomes a consultant
for a case revolving around a serial killer called the Brain Surgeon. The first two episodes
revealed that, years before, Vogel had consulted at Miami Metro and encountered Dexter’s father,
Harry, who had expressed his concerns to her about young Dexter.

Despite her extraordinary career, Rampling initially didn’t have acting aspirations. In fact,
she didn’t have any career plans until her father, Geoffrey Rampling, a Royal Army officer and
three-time Olympic runner, decided that his 17-year-old daughter needed to learn a skill.She was
working in a typing pool at an ad agency when she was cast in a commercial.

Hollywood beckoned after the success of
Georgy Girl, but Rampling wasn’t interested in living in the United States. “I preferred
to go back to Europe and make the kind of films that were close to my heart,” she said.

Her sister’s suicide when Rampling was 20 “vastly changed my direction in my life,” she said. “I
was happy-go-lucky, pretty fun, pretty wild. ... And then it happened, and you go: ‘Wait a minute.
This is not funny.’ You are not the same. Life has hit.”

Although she has done TV movies in the United States,
Dexter marks Rampling’s first series role here. “She was the first choice,” producer Sara
Colleton said.“She had to have a certain kind of aloofness that comes from being a scientist yet
also play maternal and be charming. Most of her scenes are with Michael C. Hall, and the two of
them have these wonderful acting duets.”

Although she hadn’t seen
Dexter before receiving the offer, Rampling was “very excited about the idea of creating a
character in the last part of a very popular series,” she said. “I thought this was intriguing that
you come in with a character who is going to reveal a lot of stuff about the main character and
cause a lot of suspense and a lot of angst.” “I could really launch into areas I found very fun to
play.”